JAY-Z Seems To Address His Relationship With Kanye West On “LOVEHAPPY” & “FRIENDS”

He may take some shots at Drake, too.

JAY-Z and Kanye West’s once-close relationship has grown frosty over the past few years, most notably after ‘Ye publicly dissed Jay and Beyoncé during a stream-of-conscience rant at his Saint Pablo tour stop in 2016. Although they’ve spoken about patching things up since then, Everything is Love gives fans a new peek into the state of their friendship. Jay seems to address Kanye on both “FRIENDS” and “LOVEHAPPY,” and both songs give the impression that they still have some issues to work out.

A few songs later, on album-closer “LOVEHAPPY,” he references moving from New York City to Los Angeles to save his marriage, and drops a play-on-words using Kanye’s last name along the way:

Y'all could make up with a bag, I had to change the weather
Move the whole family West, but it’s whatever
In a glass house still throwing stones

The “glass house” line could be another reference to Kanye’s onstage rant.

He finishes things off by alluding to a new power duo to replace his Watch the Throne-era relationship with Kanye. Genius contributors ccmt and kingkillmonger further explain in an annotation:

There’s also a few lyrics on “BOSS” that are worth noting, although it seems like Jay may actually be taking shots at Drake:

No cap, false, nigga, you not a boss, you got a boss
Niggas getting jerked, that shit hurts, I take it personally
Niggas rather work for the man than to work with me
Just so they can pretend they on my level, that shit is irkin' to me
Pride always goeth before the fall, almost certainly
It’s disturbing what I gross (what I gross!)
Survey says you not even close (not even close)
Everybody’s bosses ‘til it’s time to pay for the office
'TIl them invoices separate the men from the boys, over here
We measure success by how many people successful next to you
Here we say you broke if everybody gets broke except for you
Boss!

There wasn’t much discussion of Jay on Kanye’s recent album ye, but the Brooklyn rapper did previously address Kanye’s tour rant on 2017’s “Kill Jay Z”:

But you ain’t a saint, this ain’t kumbaye
But you got hurt because you did cool by ‘Ye
You gave him 20 million without blinkin’
He gave you 20 minutes on stage, fuck was he thinkin'?
“Fuck wrong with everybody?” is what you sayin'
But if everybody’s crazy, you’re the one that’s insane

We’ll have to wait and see if their relationship ever returns to its heyday. Based on the Everything is Love lyrics, it seems like they still have some work to do.